I had a difficult time deciding what to name this post. I waffled on several variations of the chosen title, but one from left field that did not make the cut, but was awful close was, "Card Show: Night Owl is Going to Freak Out." Odd post title, but you'll see...
Anyways, another point of this post is to expound upon the merits of vintage. My card show experience on Saturday was so profound, I dare say it might have made a seismic shift in my collecting goals. For years, nay, decades, vintage prices have been somewhere between where satellites orbit the Earth and that other satellite that orbits the Earth, the Moon. But not anymore, or I just had an awesome/lucky day...
Unfortunately, I was on a tight and strict budget of $20. There was also a time constraint, as my wife and daughter were circling the flea market outside the show, and I had my five year old son with me. Although my son loves baseball and cards, he's still five, which means impatience and the attention span of a border collie that just saw a squirrel. To combat this, I had my son document the card show via pictures, and he did a fine job as the last post proved.
Knowing time was short and money tight, I did my new tactic upon entering the doors: go to the back corner and briskly walk up and down each aisle to assess the show. Too many times I've blitzed the first table, blew all my cash and then found The Deal of the Century at another table. Not anymore.
After making the rounds, I settled on three vendors: The Dime Box Man; The First Timer; and The Old as Dirt Guy. With about a 30 minute window, I was giving myself a little less than 10 minutes a vendor...
The Dime Box Man had about twelve 3,000 count supershoes stuffed to the gills. I could have spent all day going through those boxes and would have mopped up with HOFers and castaway vintage. But, I had less than 10 minutes, so I went straight for the brown-topped cards. You know the ones, the cards that are actually cardboard. Not poster board, or whatever crap they use nowadays.
Most of the real cardboard was vintage football. Like 1950s and 60s vintage football for a dime a pop. A DIME! But, I was there for vintage baseball, and managed to find 10 cards in my brief amount of time. Here's what the dime boxes gave up from youngest to oldest...
That's some good vintage mojo for a buck. Two classic Hall of Fame pitchers, a couple of high numbered cards, and a '69 Leaders card. I could have spent months trying to land that Carlton on the Topps Diamond Giveaway, and it would have cost me at least 53 cents to redeem it. 10 cents here and no hassling with idiots...
From there, I went on to The First Timer's table. He was middle aged and had a modest display of vintage. He had HOFers laid out on a couple of tables, and had some binders of early 50s Topps and Bowman, as well as a '41 Play Ball binder, but some guy was Bogarting it. Anyways, I made just two purchases here, but there were epic...
Landed these two beauties for $7 total. I just couldn't pass it up! And when I got home and promptly traded the Marichal for some '86 Donruss. I think I made someone's day...
On to the final table, The Old as Dirt Guy. If I had come armed with a bigger budget, I would have had a field day at this table. I spent a whopping $7 at this table for four cards. So, I've blown my budget at three tables. $15 on cards $5 just to get in the door. But check out what I got at this table...
You may be asking yourself, wait, that's only three cards, and really not something to brag about. And what about that card that Night Owl would freak over? Oh yeah, that's right! Tucked in a box was a stack of '56s, and low and behold, what did I find but this...
Did I mention it was $5? I think I just heard Night Owl fall over. In addition to this awesome Hodges card, he had a Wilhelm for $5 and a Kell for $3, but I was tapped out!!!
Oh well, the next card show is in May, and I will be heading directly to The Old as Dirt Guy's table. None of this surveying the show. I think I blow my budget solely at his table.
Finally, the moral of the story kids is that you could own tried and true vintage cards of Hall of Famers and should be Hall of Famers for less than the price of a Blaster.
